Home again

I was up very early so that I could make an early start on my journey south. Rain and high winds were forecast.

I ate a solitary breakfast. The lady of the house had told me that the food would all be laid out for me and to help myself. It was and I did. She did not appear, even when I came to leave and did not respond to my knocking on the door labelled Private or ringing the doorbell. It felt very strange.

The roads were awash from heavy overnight rain and the section around Loch Lomond was very slow. There was fairly heavy and slow traffic around Glasgow, but I was home just after noon. That gave me time to shower and be ready for choir at 2pm. It was cancelled, but I hadn't opened any emails. Neither had several other people so we had a good chat outside the hall.

I knew that the field behind our house had been covered in poppies last week. This evening, in the warm late sunlight, I went to photograph some. The oil seed rape is all flattened by the storm and the poppies are past their best, but still gorgeous.

Daisy and Oscar have decided that I am a stranger and they must run from me. Sigh. By tonight, Daisy had allowed me a brief stroke. 

Mum was pleased to see me..........

We had sad news. My cousin Margaret died at lunchtime. She had been battling secondary breast cancer for over 5 years. (She had secondaries at the time of diagnosis.) Very hard for husband and immediate family who have supported her throughout.

In my extra, see the monkey puzzle tree in a garden near to mine. It has large spherical cones. These are the female cones and will make about 200 seeds each. The question is, where is the male tree?? (It is apparently possible for a tree to be bisexual but I could not spot any male cones on this tree.) The tree is very tall and has not been seen to make cones before. 

Looking forward to my own bed.